Papal States

The Papal States was an independent nation led by the Pope from the city of Rome from 754 AD to 1870. Holding power over the Catholic Church, the Pope was powerful, and his city-state survived for over one thousand years. Its last ruler was overthrown in 1870 when the Italian kingdom captured the city when the French garrison left.

History
The Papal States were centered on the capital of Rome, the seat of the Catholic Church. Led by the Pope and holding hegemony over most of Western Europe, the Papal States were flushed with riches and supported by foreign armies of pious rulers such as the King of France and the Holy Roman Empire. They displayed their power through building large cathedrals with indulgence money, and by declaring crusades against nonbelievers. In the Crusades (1096-1291) many peasants, afraid that they would not go to heaven, agreed to redeem themselves by fighting and killing Moors and Saracens.

With the Renaissance, however, they lost their influence. Education was no longer confined to monasteries as secular learning started with schools, and Protestantism took over Northern Europe from Catholicism. Eventually the Pope became confined to Italy, with the French and Spanish invading Italy in the Italian Wars of 1494-1521.

Their final power was broken when France occupied Rome in the 1790s. Rome would only be occupied in 1870, the last vestiges of Papal power, by the Italian unifiers of the Kingdom of Sardinia.